Four in hunt for judge's seat

August 06, 1997

By MARLO BARNHART

Staff Writer

Three attorneys interested in filling the latest vacancy on the Washington County Circuit Court made the deadline Tuesday at 5 p.m., joining M. Kenneth Long in the quest for the $96,500 a year position.

Donald Beachley is a Hagerstown attorney who has been a U.S. Magistrate Judge for 31/2 years.

D. Bruce Poole, is a 10-year veteran of the Maryland General Assembly where he represents the southern and eastern parts of Washington County.

Thomas Anthony Wade is a Hagerstown attorney whose name was in the running previously for another judicial vacancy.

All four now enter a process in which their applications will be reviewed by the Washington County Judicial Nominating Commission, which is scheduled to meet Sept. 10, according to Hagerstown attorney Daniel Dwyer, a member of the commission.

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That body will send the names of all new applicants who receive a majority of the commission votes to Gov. Parris Glendening, who will appoint a replacement for Judge Darrow Glaser.

That appointee will then take the bench but must run in the 1998 county election to secure the 15-year post.

Long, Washington County's elected state's attorney, is the lone previous applicant still eligible for a bench vacancy. His name is still "on the governor's desk" and he didn't need to reapply.

Long also will be spared the commission vote.

Glaser, 67, officially retired on May 31, but has joined retired Judge Daniel Moylan on "recall" status, according to Washington County Circuit Judge Frederick C. Wright III, administrative judge for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Maryland.

Both men are earning retirement pay rather than full judicial pay, Wright said. They also are paid depending on the number of cases they hear.

Washington County has four Circuit Court judgeships.

Wright serves as chief administrative judge and also hears cases. Other judges include John H. McDowell and the newest appointee, Kennedy Boone, who was just sworn in two months ago to fill Moylan's seat.